HELAU! and ALAAF! Karneval / Fasching in Germany, what were your first impressions?

[kindersurprise]

I am half heartedly watching Fastnacht in Franken and remembering my first winter in Germany.

Suddenly at the end of the winter, the Germans were all struck by a mysterious bug. They started dressing up in strange outfits, went to shows where 25 little blond clones danced Riverdance-style in long boots and frilly underskirts. Even my PILs were not left unaffected. We went to a Zug that had nothing to do with trains and got pelted with sweeties.

We now live in Rheinland and cannot believe how seriously they take Karneval here. Last year on Altweiber I went to the bakers in the morning and the guy in front of me in the queue was wearing a teddy bear suit, at 7am! I passed 2 ladies in PJs and a clown on my way home.

This year I am determined to find out for myself what Düsseldorf is like at Karneval and, armed with scissors (in the more than likely vain hope that we will find an intact Krawatte) will head for the Altstadt.

What were your first impressions of Karneval and do you take part in the 5th season now?

[kindersurprise]

HELAU!

[berolina]

My first year in Germany, on my year abroad (im karnevalsfernen Berlin), I endedup in hospital with severe gastroenteritis at carnival time. I very quickly felt better but had been quite seriously ill on a drip so they wouldn't let me go. I was in a room between two older ladies and they were watching those Prunksitzungen on TV. I think I wasn't quite sure whether the dehydration was causing me to hallucinate.

Down South was a bit more carnevally - basically I hid . This year I have to sort ds1 out with a Fasching outfit for kiga. Help... In Berlin they apparently say 'Heijo'. The main carnival people are the exiled Bonners.

I am very fond of the Rheinland and would quite like to experience it all close up one day - don't think I have the stamina right now...

[kindersurprise]

We took the DCs to see the Rosenmontagszug last year. It is crazy. We found a reasonably quiet area as the main areas are packed.

They throw buckets of sweeties here, really good ones too. Packets of Haribo, Mars and Bountys. We did not buy sweets for months afterwards.

Lol at Berolina hallucinating at the Prunktsitzung.

[Gracelo]

I did a lot of waitressing at Prunksitzungen while I was a student and working throughout Fasching used to finance me right into summer. Lots of drunken middle-aged men trying to impress that friendly waitress with big tips, fabulous .

I loved Fasching as a child, dressing up and running wild on the streets in our village always on the look out for the older kids who were trying to scare you.

[Nighbynight]

My first impression?
When I got on a train at 7,30 am in Saarbruecken going north, and it was full of people PARTYING ......these germans are crazy [toc toc toc]

4 yrs on, I cant escape without sorting out 4 fasching costumes for my children. Oh the annual agonies. ds1 has decided on being a pirate. ds2 is in hosp. dd2's costume has to be white, cos thats the theme of her kiga. dd1 cant decide, but refuses to be a witch or a princess. I have a feeling this ones going to be expensive.

[SSSandy2]

It isn't really a big thing in Berlin. You can ignore it totally if you choose to. I stock up on dressing up outfits this time of year because I think they're nice things for dc to have in a big box at home.

Can't remember my first impressions now. Slight bewilderment I think at the TV shows. Dd has always enjoyed the dressing up bit for school/kg except when she was 2 and then she was frightened by the whole thing, sat in a corner, crying.

This year she has so much to choose from, she can go as what she likes. She has a Chinese dress from one of those cheapo Chinese grocery/junk stores and a matching Chinese hat from last year's carnival, a wild mask with red and gold feathers all over it (went as a bird with a beak and a cloak), princess outfit, Indian, ghost.

I think this year she's going as a sheriff but I passed an Indian Bollywood store today and they had cute sari outfits. I was thinking maybe a pile of those cheap bangles (10 for 1 euro) and a t-shirt with a sparkly shawl draped round like a sari, dot on her forehead. She liked the sound of that one.

[SSSandy2]

Only thing she won't do is the whole princess/fairy set up although she has all the paraphenalia.

I prefer more unusual things too - one girl is coming as a crocodile. I'd like to deck dd out as a funny tree one time if I could figure out how to do it.

[ConfusedMover]

Completely unable to buy any fancy dress costumes here outside of Fasching, why is that? Mind you Hofer/Aldi always do good ones for 5 euros at Fasching time

[kindersurprise]

Our DCs are always a big hit in Kindergarten as we buy the costumes back home. They are so much nicer than most of the cheap and nasty stuff you get here.

DD is going as Sleeping Beauty and DS Superman.

The Sari outfit sounds great. Hmm, might pop into Ddorf and have a look for something along those lines for myself.

Can't decide what to wear on Donnerstag. Has to be warm and not too silly.

[callmeovercautious]

I lived in Germany as a Child and used to love all the Sweets. about 10 years ago DP was working out there and I warned him not to wear a tie for work that day - he laughed and told me I was silly.

By 10am he was on the phone telling me he had been assaulted by a woman in strange clothes with a pair of scissors He really enjoyed the evening Party though - was in bed for 2 days he drank so much

[hippipotami]

I lived near Frankfurt as a child and will never forget watching the parade in our local village, and coming home with carrier bags full of boiled sweets.

I remember it fondly (and still have the cavities to prove how many sweets were thrown )

[Nighbynight]

well, I bought dd a costume today - a totally gorgeous medieval style dress that she fell in love with. It was so expensive that it had to be 2 sizes too big (for next year AND the year after), but is easy to alter the sleeve and skirt length. Cant believe I just spent so much on a fasching costume - help, I must be going native!

[admylin]

My dd is going as a vampire and ds hates fasching so that is fine with me! We used to live down in the south in a catholic village and the whole carneval thing was so important. You HAD to be in the carneval club if you wanted to be integrated and they had wierd initiation ceromonies for the youngsters who were 'coming of age' and being accepted officially into the club which involved dunking in the village pond in February - I never got it.

Later when the dc were older and we went to the parades, they would come away with bags full of sweets. Here in Berlin the first year we lived here we went to the parade which is quite a new novel thing for alot of Berliners and there were adults nearly snatching the sweets from the kids. One old guy opened up his umbrella to catch all the sweets as they were thrown from teh floats- they didn't even touch the ground for the kids to get a chance. That was the end of carneval for us, never again!

[SSSandy2]

I've never experienced a carnival parade admylin or any of those clubs or anything, Berlin not being exactly Catholic or even remotely Christian at all for that matter. I know the exiled Bonners here all get together at some club and let it rip amongst themselves. Quite a few travel home especially for the carnival. I think if you grow up with it, you'd really miss not having the whole thing.

What always seemed a bit odd to me (looking at it very much from the outside) was that although it is a fun thing, it is taken/organised so seriously IYSWIM. I suppose you do have to plan these things way ahead though to organise all the shows and floats and whatever else they do in the West/South

That costume sounds nice NN

[kindersurprise]

I have sorted out my costume for Thursday. Have a look on my profile.

Just in case you don't know him, this is one of his biggest hits.

Now I just need a karaoke bar! HÖLLE HÖLLE HÖLLE!!!

[SSSandy2]

Good outfit, might hamper your flirting though. Is that you too the blonde woman outside the castle wall?

Yeah know him. Wouldn't have been able to tell you what he sings but recognised the song once he got to the Wahnsinn bit.

Is he from the East or West, do you know?

[kindersurprise]

Yes, I do suspect that I might not pull in that outfit! At least Dh won't have to worry about me.

That is me too, without the moustache. At Hogwarts, otherwise known as Alnwick Castle.

I have no idea where Wolfgang Petry is from. Maybe one of the German MNetters will know.

[admylin]

Very brave of you to go out into the midst of it all kinder! I wouldn't have dared go out at carneval in the south. You should be safe in that costume though. The last time I dressed up was in France and I went as a french man in blue overalls, striped top, beret and a string of garlic round my neck.